Friday, August 27, 2010

ICE CREAM PETITS FOURS - DARING BAKERS

Although, at the beginning of each month, I promise myself to finish myDaring Bakers' challenge long before the deadline I always end up making it at the very last moment. I think that I'm having trouble dealing with the endless flow of time. Every Sunday I feel as if I have got thrown into a washing machine with the tumble dryer program on and I shake my head in disbelief everytime a new month starts. I feel like a hamster running round in a wheel...

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of "17 And Baking". For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a "Baked Alaska" or in "Ice Cream Petit Fours". The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet Magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

As I had never made "Petits Fours" or "Ice Cream Sandwiches" before, I decided upon making those cute little frozen cakes for my boyfriend's birthday. As we were only two to eat this dessert and since my freezer crammed with "junk" I thought it would be more judicious to cut the the quantities in half. Otherwise I followed the recipe to the letter, nonetheless I added my personal touch to the vanilla ice cream that I flavored with Chinese Five-Spice powder (a mix of powdered star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds) and dark rum.

Apart from having problems with the size of my freezer, the high temperatures (the ice cream started melting when I tried to coat the cakes with the cooled glaze - painful), my nerve-wracking hungry cats (who constantly kept walking around my legs and following my every movement as well as step while sitting at the other end of the room with their biiiiiiig psycho eyes) the making of those "Ice Cream Petit Fours" went quite smoothly.

We really liked those icy treats. The cake had a heavenly nutty taste thanks to the browned butter, the ice cream was divinely spicy and boozy and the dark chocolate glaze had a lot of character. All those elements blended very well together, yet I must say that I would have prefered to eat each of them separately (a ball ice cream with a slice of non-frozen cake, the whole drizzled with warm chocolate ganache). Somehow, the cake had less flavor when served frozen and that was a bit annoying as it was very aromatic when I tested it before it was used to make mini sandwiches...Anyway, I wish to thank Elissa for having chosen that great dessert and making me try something new. A recipe that delighted usvery much!

Preparation time:Ice cream – 45 min active time, ice cream rests/chills for 1 hour then overnight. Without an ice cream maker, the ice cream chills 2-3 hours and must be stirred every 30 minutes.Brown Butter Pound Cake – 2 hours (includes cooling time).Chocolate Glaze – 15 minutesMeringue – 10 minutesAssembly of Ice Cream Petit Fours – Ice cream must be frozen ahead of time several hours, then the cake and ice cream freeze overnight. After dipping, the petit fours freeze for one hours.Assembly of Baked Alaska – Ice cream must be frozen head of time several hours, then the Baked Alaska is frozen 1 hour or up to one day.

MethodFor The "Five Spice Ice Cream":1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.).2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean), the 5 spice, the rum and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it without a machine (see instructions from David Lebovitz).

Method For the "Brown Butter Pound Cake":1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Method For The "Chocolate Glaze":1. Stir the heavy cream and light corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate.2. Let sit 30 seconds, then stir to completely melt the chocolate. Stir in the vanilla and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours.

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HOW TO ASSEMBLE

Instructions:1. Line a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) pan with plastic wrap, so that no sides of the pan are exposed and so there is some extra plastic wrap hanging off the sides. Spread 1 ¾ to 2 cups (450ml to 500ml) ice cream into the pan. Cover with more plastic wrap and freeze several hours.2. Once the brown butter pound cake has completely cooled, level the top with a cake leveler or a serrated knife. Then split the cake in half horizontally to form two thin layers.3. Unwrap the frozen ice cream. Flip out onto one of the layers of cake and top with the second layer of cake. Wrap well in plastic wrap and return to the freezer overnight.4. Make the chocolate glaze (see above.).5. While the glaze cools, trim ¾” (2cm) off each side of the ice cream cake to leave a perfectly square 7.5” (19cm) ice cream cake. Cut the cake into twenty five petit fours, each 1.5”x1.5” (4cmx4cm).

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NOTES

• While there is not a great deal of active time, this recipe cannot be easily completed in a day because of freezing time. Make the ice cream first, then the pound cake, then the glaze/meringue as stated in the assembly instructions.• The pound cake calls for cake flour. You can make 1 cup of cake flour by placing 2 tablespoons of corn starch in a 1 cup measure, and filling to the top with all purpose flour.• The ice cream can be flavored however you want by infusing the cream, stirring in extracts or mix ins, or folding in purees, sauces, etc.• For the petit fours, you can also use your own recipe for fondant, poured fondant, royal icing, or marzipan. I recommend the chocolate glaze because it freezes well and balances the sweetness of the ice cream, but it does limit the scope of your decorations.

111 comments:

What a lovely posting; such care and talent! Your Petit Fours are beautiful and the accents of the other pictures add such color and style. I'm up at 2am in the US trying to finish mine; I can so relate to the time...never enough.

Thank you for sharing your recipe, which as always looks superb! I really love the fact that you don't just give the recipe, but insights as to how it all worked for you and changes you might make in the future. My food hero!

Love the perfect layers and your addition of five spice.I kept my ganache covered cakes in the fridge for a few hours before serving. The ganache kept the ice-cream from melting out and my cake had become really soft and nice.

I can understand what you mean about frozen cake having less flavor than non-frozen. But from the looks of the beautiful photos, I'd be happy to eat a dozen of those petit-fours. Great idea adding the 5-spice to the ice cream.

Rosa! These are absolutely delicious looking-even beautiful would be appropriate. You know, I just would never attempt such a thing. I'm too slow. It would all melt away with me in charge (smile). Ooh, and photographing it-no way;)!

What a great idea, adding the five spice powder to the vanilla ice cream - I never would have thought of that. Your finished petit fours are beautiful - the layers are so clean and straight. And you photos are amazing, as well. Really great job.

Hi Rosa,I'm new to following your blog and I just wanted to tell you that your food makes me salivate! I found you from looking up bread recipe's, I have a very old pampered sour dough starter and I followed your tips for the loaf.

I also took your tip in trying King Arthurs brand of flour and loved it!

I am so amazed that you managed to make this on your return from vacation! The ice-cream flavored with 5spices, the pound cake with brown sugar and the chocolate coating are all a perfect marriage of flavors and the ice-cream cake combo is perfect in this heat!